This family photo my mother had presented me among many others one day have been always drawing my attention.
My grandfather Antoni Szymczewski stands in the very centre, among other Polish soldiers dressed in civil clothes on their way from Poland (1939) through Romania (where he left his wife and daughter - my mother) in safety (later they saild to Tel-Aviv), Greece, France to Great Britain where he joined !st Polish Armoured Div. that fought near Falaise (bit that is another story).
This particular photo was taken on "March 7th, 1940, Greece" as my grandpa wrote on the back of it (later he sent it to my grandmother on exile). I never knew my grandpa (he died when I was one).
The arrow points at the Temple.
What made me curious was - where? Where in Greece? Seeing the temple in the background mad eme think - Athens, obviously.
So when we made a trip to Athens last week I took the photo with me and asked our guide: "could you please tell me where the picture might have been taken?"
She answered smiling: "Of course I know the place! Areopag mountain and the Hephaistos' Temple in the back! We'll be there tomorrow!"
And she took us there, I found the rocks they stood upon, showed the photo to accompanying tourists and told the story. Can't tell you how moved I was.
Here I am with my daughter Michelle, Antoni Szymczewski's grand-granddaughter.
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